“We need need a new flight software load that is optimized for surface,” he said. “We landed on one that was optimized for landing,” but that software “doesn’t have to drive the rover operate the arm and all that…. So we want to switch to this new flight software that’s really optimized for surface operations.”

In preparation, the team back on Earth checked to make sure back-up software was in good health to guard against problems during the update.

The break for the rover comes after a busy week that began with its rocket-aided landing in the Gale Crater Sunday night. Since, it’s dazzled scientists with peeks of its new home that at first glance seems similar to California’s Mojave Desert. The initial pictures were fuzzy and black-and-white.

Thursday, it sent back another round photos giving the most detailed look yet of the landscape in the first 360-degree colour panorama from the mission.

Area 51? No, Quad 51 is where I landed on Mars. Here's a map of Gale crater. (PS - I come in peace) #MSL twitpic.com/ahdtkg

Scientists admired the sweeping vista — red dust, dark sand dunes and tan-hued rocks. In the distance was the base of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mountain rising from the crater floor, where the six-wheel rover planned to go.

“It’s very exciting to think about getting there, but it is quite a ways away,” said mission scientist Dawn Sumner of the University of California, Davis.

Though it’s the sharpest view yet of the landing site, the panorama was stitched together from thumbnails while scientists waited for better quality pictures to be downloaded.

Earlier this week, the rover raised its mast containing high-definition and navigation cameras that have provided better views.

“It’s beautiful just to finally see the colors in the terrain,” said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, who is part of the mission.

The car-size rover remained healthy and busy testing its various instruments. Several pebbles landed on the rover’s deck next to its radiation sensor during the final seconds of landing as it was lowered to the ground, but project managers said the stones posed no risk.

Curiosity “continues to behave basically flawlessly,” Watkins said.

Curiosity is the most complex interplanetary rover ever designed, and engineers are taking their time performing health checkups. The rover will not make its first drive or move its robotic arm for weeks.

During its two-year mission, the roaming laboratory will analyze rocks and soil in search of the chemical building blocks of life, and determine whether there were habitable conditions where microbes could thrive.